Riverscape Season Signups Open!
In the heat of summer, we can't imagine a better way to cool off than by dipping our hands into Utah's streams, weaving willows, and enjoying a day in the mountains. If this sounds like your ideal day, we hope you'll join us at one (or more!) of our 2024 Riverscape Restoration volunteer days!
2024 is set to be our biggest year yet, with an ambitious goal of building over 500 structures to restore 8 miles of streams with the support of our amazing community of volunteers and partners!
Sign-ups are now open, with even more dates to come! Join us at the links below, and keep an eye on our website for future updates.
If you'd like to plan a group volunteer day, or have questions about partnerships, please reach out to Rose Smith and Jens Ammon to coordinate.
Meet our Riverscape Restoration Interns!
We're excited to introduce our Riverscape Restoration Ecology Interns, Harmony & Danielle! They're spending their summer conducting Rapid Stream-Riparian Assessments (RSRAs) at our riverscape restoration sites. The RSRA gauges the overall health of our rivers before and after restoration, and includes measurements like algae abundance, aquatic macroinvertebrate presence, and invasive plant percentage. They then take all of these different measurements (24 in total!) and score each stream for water quality, wildlife habitat, plant habitat, and the hydraulic features of the stream.
When not out in the field, Harmony & Danielle keep busy compiling data, writing reports, and helping out on our other amazing conservation projects. Learn more about their internship experiences below!
What skills or expertise are you most excited to gain from this internship?
Danielle: It has been very interesting to learn how we look at rivers as a scientist, and how hydrologists would look at a river completely different than a wildlife biologist would. So, considering stream flow, historic stream events, even down to the minutiae of what kind of plants we’re seeing, what our stream banks look like, whether or not we have underbank cover, it’s very detailed. It has also been great learning about macroinvertebrates, different kinds of vegetation, and - of course - the beavers!
What does a day in the life of a Riverscape Intern look like?
Harmony: We either have a field day or a day in the office, but the majority of our days are field days. When we have field days, we try to beat the heat, so we get out a little earlier. When we hit the road, our field sites are anywhere between 20 minutes to 4 hours from SLC, we’re going all over Utah. We arrive at the site, do a quick safety field check, make sure we have all of our gear, and then we trek to the site. Depending on the conditions of the reach, it can take 2-4 hours to complete a field survey. We split up the work to conduct our survey, and have lunch in the field. When finished we drive back to the office, gather and organize our data, and prepare for the next field day. Office days usually consist of compiling our data onto computers, updating reports, and helping with other various river restoration projects.
Why are our Volunteers Pretending to be Beavers?
Volunteers building a beaver dam analog. Article and photos by Nicole Schulter
If you've joined us on a riverscape restoration day, you know what keeps our volunteers coming back year after year. But if you've yet to dip your toes into this work, you may be wondering - why are our volunteers pretending to be beavers?
Great question! We invite you to get a glimpse into a Riverscape Restoration volunteer day through this article.
Essentially, BDAs are a human effort at imitating the form and function of natural beaver dams. They not only assist the ecosystem by replicating the contributions of beavers, but they can also provide immediate deep water habitat for beavers who may return.
While beavers are master builders, volunteers require no special skill to participate in the significant contribution made by constructing BDAs. Thanks to valuable experts like Janice, watershed scientist Jack Dahlquist (pictured top left), and many other partners, each volunteer group has direction, learns all about the work, and has a place to go with questions.
Read the full article at the link below, and be sure to sign up to join us in the stream this fall to experience the magic for yourself!
New: Riverscape Resources
If you're interested in learning more about Riverscape Restoration and the science behind it, we invite you to check out our updated Riverscape Restoration Resources list! Here you can find inspirational videos, scientific manuals, permitting resources, trainings, and more! Scroll to the bottom of our Riverscape Restoration page for the full list.
For more information on what to expect, feel free to review our FAQ page. For information on COVID safety protocols, you can read our online document here.
See you soon!